Shaheer Ahmed
Over the Memorial Day weekend in the United States, Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid took first place at North American box offices, according to market observer Exhibitor Relations on Sunday.
Featuring pop singer Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, the 1989 animated story of an underwater princess who sacrifices her voice in search of true love on land brought in $117.5 million in US and Canadian box offices and an additional $68 million abroad, according to Exhibitor Relations.
Even though the aquatic adventure debuted at number one, analyst David A. Gross noted that it did not mark the largest opening weekend for a live-action Disney production.
He recalled that 2019’s The Lion King and 2017’s Beauty and the Beast earned $191.8 million and $174.8 million respectively, over their opening weekends.
“During the last dozen years, Disney has built live-action remakes into a powerhouse phenomenon,” Gross wrote in the FranchiseRe newsletter.
Still, Ariel and friends were able to bump last week’s number one feature Fast-X down to a distant number two, with Universal’s action film pulling in only $29.5 million in the Friday to Monday period.
That’s less than half of what the movie, part of the Fast & Furious franchise starring Vin Diesel, made during its opening weekend last week.
Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie were also knocked down one spot each from last weekend to take third and fourth places, making $25.3 million and $7.7 million.
In fifth place was Sony’s new action comedy The Machine, which earned $5.8 million and is based on US comedian Bert Kreischer’s stand-up routine.
